The Bible is clear that many parts of our lives run to a plan that God has created (Psalms 139:16-18, Jeremiah 1:5, Acts 17:26-27). But we also know from scripture that God is not responsible for the things that happen to us because of other people’s sins, for God cannot be tempted to sin, neither tempts any man (James 1:13), that temptation comes from Satan (Luke 22:31, Job 1:6-12). Yet in all of this God has allowed free will choices to direct us through the plan He has made, which can even result in God being effected in heart by our choices (either for good or evil), as can be seen in the following:
So first we need to visit the scriptures that show God has a plan for us, even one written down before we were born.
Because we are talking about Predestination vs Free Will, we will discuss these scriptures in that context. I show on this site how Free Will is the most logical choice to make when deciding whether to believe in Predestination. But we need to discuss this scripture from the two viewpoints.
A person who believes in Predestination would say Jeremiah is a prime example of why one should believe in Predestination. The scripture stating "before your birth I made you holy", would suggest to a person who believes the doctrine of Predestination that God makes people either Holy or Unholy before they do any actual works.
We will present a detailed case for our actions directing God’s plan after this introduction. But just to comment on the scripture from Jeremiah that says "before your birth I made you holy"". To a person who believes in free will, as I do, this is just meaning God has set apart a Holy task for Jeremiah to do, not God saved Jeremiah before he was born.
Now let’s do a case study to show that there is not a fixedness to God’s plan i.e. every step was not predetermined at creation (both good and evil), but rather to control evil (God not wanting the evil actions of man to prevail) planed out our steps. Having a plan eliminates anarchy, and allows God to mold a good future for His people.
When speaking of God’s plan with regard to free will, it is like, God presents man with a set of options, choices, (which are God's will) and man determines the way the plan progresses, by his human choice. Yet the next set of choices faced by the person is to a degree determined by God. The level that this plan is managed at is unknown, it may be every micro choice, or just important steps through life.
Yet God is always trying to work these plans to the good. God is not planning out the evil. He is planning out a good plan for every evil a man may choose, with in the limits of man's own power. God has a good plan for us, no matter what choices others may make that negatively affect us. For we know that all things work together for good for those who love God.
Now we know from Psalms 139:15-18 that God had a plan for David before he was born. A Calvinist will say that plan was written down before creation and cannot be altered, that even the sins are determined by God’s plan and foreknowledge. But if you look at the scripture there is no indication that it means before creation. In fact the scripture says the book was written while he was in the womb.
Although it really does not matter for the sake of argument when the plan was written, the scripture suggests it was when he was in his mother’s womb. Which would actually make more sense in a free will system where God is placing constraints on man to help reduce the sin that is occurring in the world due to free will choices.
But now we wish to look at how our choices determine the outcome of our lives, not God’s frozen will. David was tempted to sin when he saw Bathsheba bathing on her roof top. For a start God did not put her there for David to look at, she would have given into the temptation to sin to be there in the first place. For remember God cannot be tempted to sin neither tempts anyone. But David also was led to sin, and even had Bathsheba’s husband killed to cover up his misdemeanor. But let’s look at God’s response:
Notice in the scripture that when David sinned God changed the plan He had for David. I stress God’s focus was on "why have you despised the commandment of the LORD", and "because you have despised me". We see this idea throughout scripture, that God can and does change His plans based upon man's responses.
We see even Jeremiah could have lost his calling, God stating:
The same thing happened to Job, Satan asked God to be able to test Job, but God put limits on the temptation.
Yet there is also the topic of the negative plan. A person being used to perform a negative task. Judas was one such example he was given the task of betraying Jesus. But what did he do it for money. The sin he was already partaking of. It is a bit like a person secretly using porn as a habit, a part of God’s plan may be to bring the wife of the offender into the room while they are doing it. It is not that God is planning the sin, He just knows it will occur, but He is using the sin as a part of His plan to bring a just outcome. In the case of the porn story bringing conviction into the situation in the form of the partner finding out.
Judas we see was called a devil by Jesus:
Yes Judas was a devil, at the time, Jesus called him. But was not that Judas was always a devil. He had a lifestyle of theft. As we see:
We also need to look at the case of Pharaoh he was also raised up for a negative purpose, he was hardened by God.
One will say, "ah ha see God made him sin", but the reality is God just used a man who was already sinful to bring about a positive, good, Godly set of circumstances, the deliverance of Israel from bondage. We see that this event is working together for good.
One point of note here is that Paul says:
Note the scripture says God endured with much long suffering the vessels He uses for a negative purpose. Suggesting He has in the past suffered long their behavior, got sick of it, and finally given them over to destruction.